Supporting Facts

OPEN

The US government has spent trillions of dollars on wars.

“The Afghanistan war, the longest overseas conflict in American history, has cost the US taxpayer nearly $1tn and will require spending several hundred billion dollars more after it officially ends this month, according to Financial Times calculations and independent researchers.”

“The U.S. war in Iraq has cost $1.7 trillion with an additional $490 billion in benefits owed to war veterans, expenses that could grow to more than $6 trillion over the next four decades counting interest.”

“Pre-kindergartners in the Joshua school district in Texas have to track down Dixie cups and paper plates, while students at New Central Elementary in Havana, Ill., and Mesa Middle School in Castle Rock, Colo., must come to class with a pack of printer paper. Wet Swiffer refills and plastic cutlery are among the requests from St. Joseph School in Seattle. And at Pauoa Elementary School in Honolulu, every student must show up with a four-pack of toilet paper.”

“Taylor will celebrate his 59th birthday this week a free man. But with his freedom, there’s a catch — prosecutors insisted he plead ‘no contest’ to 28 counts of murder — to crimes he insists he did not commit.”

ITALY

Italian workers have at least 30-35 days paid holiday mandated each year.

Workers in Italy are entitled to the EU mandated four weeks of vacation, equal to 20 vacation days, each year. In addition, Italy has 12 national paid holidays. Workers receive extra pay even when these holidays are not on workdays.

There are 11 national Holidays in Italy according to the US Embassy in Italy: New Year’s Day, Epiphany, Easter Monday, Anniversary of Liberation, Labor Day (5/1), Foundation of the Italian Republic, Assumption Day, All Saints’ Day, Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Christmas Day, and St. Stephen’s Day.

“In Europe, some countries, including Italy, Portugal and Spain, mandate additional salary payments. In Italy, for example, nearly all companies provide a 13-month salary to all employees while other companies provide a 14-month salary.”

According to data from the WHO, Italy has a combined (m/f) expectancy of 83 years. Only Japan has a higher life expectancy for both sexes, at 84 years. Compare this to the U.S., which has a life expectancy of 79 in the same WHO data set.

Workers at the Lardini factory go home for a two-hour lunch break every day.

Andrea Lardini confirmed the two-hour lunch break in an interview in a fashion magazine, here: “The Lardinis take the term ‘family’ to heart. That’s why for instance lunch breaks in manufacturing last 2 hours: ‘Operators need to get home and feed their families.’ They have a staggered timetable for different groups to assure the workflow. Treating employees with great respect is the Lardini credo. A respect that shows itself resplendently in the final product.”

“Of all the statistics available on Italy and its varied economic problems, few are as eye-opening as the fact that at around 1 p.m on any given day, three quarters of the population will normally be sitting down to lunch in their own homes. According to data from statistics agency ISTAT, lunch is the most important meal of the day for 68 percent of Italians and 74.3 percent usually eat it at home, a figure which has grown as a long recession has hit spending on food and eating out.”

Ducati makes a healthy profit (even though they pay good wages and give their workers good benefits).

“Ducati, which last year sold about 42,000 motorcycles such as the $28,000 Superbike 1199 Panigale S Tricolore, posted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to 93 million euros in 2011, a person familiar with the financial figures said March 13. … Ducati’s revenue last year rose 20 percent to 480 million euros, giving it a profit margin of about 19 percent.”

“Ducati hails 2012 a banner year, making the announcement at the annual press conference of its German owner, Audi. The Italian marque claims revenue up 16% over 2011, with 44,102 units delivered to its customers.”

Italian union workers went were persecuted, imprisoned, and convicted in their struggle to make benefits the law or part of their contract.

“The militant struggles of the 60s and early 70s saw great material gains for the Italian working class. New forms of struggle employed and attempts at collective decision making in the factories had reaped great benefits, and made many Italian workers conscious of the power that can be wielded in the workplace.”

“Maternity leave is compulsory for female workers, from two months before until three months after childbirth. Pre childbirth leave can start at an earlier date than two months, if the worker’s work is dangerous for her health or that of the unborn child. On the other hand it is possible to postpone pre-childbirth leave in order to increase the leave granted after childbirth…. During compulsory maternity leave, the mother is entitled to 80% of her regular pay from Social Security and the period is counted as actual work time. Collective agreements usually oblige the employer to make up the difference to the regular wage.”

“This state of affairs places America in a very small group: countries that neither provide new parents with some sort of Social Security-esque benefit nor require that businesses pay their employees even a portion of their normal salaries. According to the map above, the U.S. is joined by Suriname and Papua New Guinea. It is the lone developed nation with this status.”

Italy, like the United States, is among the top most productive nations in the world.

Charles Jones, a professor of economics at Stanford University who has been researching productivity for decades, used data from Penn World Table 8.0 to calculate Total Factor Productivity (TFP) for 128 different countries and found that Italy ranks 15th out of all of them.

“The supplement for free choice of childcare is paid to a couple or parent using the services of a registered childminder or a childminder in the home to care for a child under age 6. It is awarded either as a separate benefit or, if the parent(s) fulfil(s) the income conditions, on top of the basic allowance. The benefit is made up of two different components: a component covering part of the childminder’s wage and varying according to household income and the child’s age, and a component consisting of payment by the direct settlement system (“tiers payant”) of all or part of the social security contributions payable as employer of the childminder (100% of the contributions payable for a registered childminder and 50% for a childminder in the home, up to a ceiling of €442 per month for a child under age 3 and €221 for a child between ages 3 and 6). The supplement is paid at the full rate up to the child’s third birthday, then at a reduced-rate until the child’s sixth birthday.”

“In France, though, student loan debt is an alien concept. Fewer than 2 percent of students in France take out loans to pay for their education. The idea that you might have to take out loans is met with disbelief. The vast majority of universities here are publicly funded, with tuition rates set by the government. These public universities, among them the Sorbonne in Paris, cost an average of 183 euros per year for a licence, the three-year French equivalent of an undergraduate degree.”

The average employee social security contribution (SSC) rates as percentage of gross earnings for the average worker in 2014 are 14.05% for France and 7.65% for US. The average personal income taxes (PIT) for the average worker in 2014 in the US was 17.19% and in France was 14.65%.

“This zone concerns the social charges. Column A shows the base for the calculation (either your full salary, or the Social Security ceiling, or that portion of your salary which is above the Social Security ceiling). Column B shows the amounts added to your gross salary (rare), column C shows the amounts deducted from your gross salary, and column D shows the employer’s contributions. This section culminates with a line in BOLD “Cotisat.Salariales” which is the total amount of the salary deductions for the month. The gross salary minus the social charges is your net taxable salary.”

A small high school in Texas that does not offer sex education / has an abstinence-only program was hit with an outbreak of Chlamydia.

“Crane High School in Crane, Tex., is experiencing an outbreak of the sexually transmitted disease Chlamydia. … But because the school has an abstinence-only program, the problem has attracted attention to questions about the viability of abstinence education. ‘We do have an abstinence curriculum, and that’s evidently ain’t working,’ [Independent School District Superintendent Jim Rumage] told KFOR.”

Texas has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates among all the states.

The clip of Rick Perry’s interview is from Oct. 2010. At the time, Texas was 3rd in the nation in teen pregnancies, according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and CDC figures for 2009 (in the final 2010 figures, Texas was 4th).

“Texas was ranked 5 out of 51 (50 states + the District of Columbia) on final 2013 teen births rates among females aged 15-19 (with 1 representing the highest rate and 51 representing the lowest rate).”

“Finland emerged at the top of 57 countries in science, according to the 2006 survey results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). The US ranked 29th, behind countries like Croatia, the Czech Republic, and Liechtenstein, and ahead of just nine other OECD countries.”

Figure 2.12a of this OECD study on of student performance in mathematics shows Finland having the highest “percentage of students at each level of proficiency on the mathematics / quantity scale,” while the US ranked 29th.

“Mobile Phone Throwing is light and modern Finnish sport that suits for people of all ages. It combines recycling philosophy and fun spirit in active sport. A part of the philosophy is also a spiritual freedom from being available all the time.”

In the past, Finland’s schools were as bad as the schools in the US, and placed similar to the US on world education rankings.

In a mid-1960s international math exam, the results of which started getting published in 1965, had 3 different ages tested. Melding together the rankings, Finland finished No. 8 and the US 12 out of 12 countries. In a late-60s science exam, results of which were published between 1969 and 1973, three ages were tested. Again, melding the country rankings, the US and Finland finished tied for 5th out of 11.

A late 1970s math exam study (results published 1980-89), with 9 different student ages and test subjects, saw Finland finish, on average, 6th out of 16 nations or regions, while the US was on average 9th. In the 1990s Finland begins to soar and in 2000 hits No. 1.

“Some top achieving countries, like Singapore, assign their students lots of homework. But Finland, for example, succeeds without much homework. On average, Finnish students do only about three hours of homework a week, yet in 2012 they scored sixth highest in the world in reading and 12th highest in math on the OECD’s international test, known as PISA or Programme for International Student Assessment.”

“Each year, the OECD publishes a report comparing the performance of education systems in the industrialised world. And this shows that the countries which have the lowest number of hours in the classroom – Finland, Norway, Sweden, South Korea and Denmark – are also among the countries with the highest level of achievement.”

Pasi Sahlberg: But our Constitution, the main reason our Constitution says that education is free, meaning that it’s free of charge. It’s like a basic human right, this is what we often say in Finland that we perceive education as a basic human right that should be accessible for everybody regardless of where they come from; but by saying that education is free we also mean that it’s open to parents or whoever wants to see what’s going on in our classrooms. But that is one reason why we cannot have private universities, or we cannot have universities or education institutions that would charge tuition fees for the formal degrees, okay?

Question: Because university is a human right?

Pasi Sahlberg: Because of this Constitution of thinking that education is a basic human right. So therefore the universities that are offering programs that lead to a formal degree like Masters degree or Undergrad degree, they cannot charge tuition from students for that. And the same thing with primary schools and high schools that they cannot—they cannot charge fee for that.

“It is illegal to charge fees in the Finnish education system, so even those schools that are run privately take their funding from the state. Its schools are comprehensive in that there is no selection of pupils.”

“Only a small number of independent schools exist in Finland, and even they are all publicly financed. None is allowed to charge tuition fees. There are no private universities, either. This means that practically every person in Finland attends public school, whether for pre-K or a Ph.D.”

Students in Slovenia protested when it was proposed that universities begin charging tuition.

“Demonstrations against the new act on higher education (Zvis) took place in Ljubljana on Wednesday. The police had to prevent a small group of protesters from entering the premises of the ministry of education, but otherwise the student protest was peaceful.”

Therapeutic treatments are covered as long as the person’s qualifying doctor approves. While the level of treatment and coverage varies, “insurance generally covers all costs for up to three weeks. You’ll only pay the 10 Euro deductible per day.” If a term of longer than 3 weeks is required, you can apply for continued coverage.

NY Times article “Bad Neuenahr Journal; To Tighten Germany’s Belt, Take a Look at the Spa” dated July 23, 1996, discusses German government’s struggle to limit health insurance spa provision from 4 weeks every three years to 3 weeks every 4 years. A 2008 UK Telegraph article also says, “Doctors in Germany, Italy, France and Hungary prescribe state-subsidized treatments and spa visits as a matter of course.”

In addition, a German Ministry of Labor representative verified by email that German law states that on mandatory paid holidays, employees are released from all job responsibilities, including responding to contact from their supervisors

Section 8 of Germany’s Federal Paid Leave Act

Business Activity during Vacation: During vacation, the employee shall not pursue any business activity conflicting with the purpose of the vacation.

Using drugs is not considered a crime in Portugal, so there is no legal possibility of receiving a jail sentence for using drugs.

“Twelve years ago, Portugal eliminated criminal penalties for drug users. Since then, those caught with small amounts of marijuana, cocaine or heroin go unindicted and possession is a misdemeanor on par with illegal parking.”

“‘There is no doubt that the phenomenon of addiction is in decline in Portugal,’ said Joao Goulao, President of the Institute of Drugs and Drugs Addiction, a press conference to mark the 10th anniversary of the law. The number of addicts considered ‘problematic’ — those who repeatedly use ‘hard’ drugs and intravenous users — had fallen by half since the early 1990s, when the figure was estimated at around 100,000 people, Goulao said.”

“The [1996] Act provided that individuals convicted of crimes involving 500 grams of powder cocaine or just 5 grams of crack (the weight of two pennies) were sentenced to at least 5 years imprisonment, without regard to any mitigating factors. The Act also provided that those individuals convicted of crimes involving 5000 grams of powder cocaine and 50 grams of crack (the weight of a candy bar) be sentenced to 10 years imprisonment”

“Black people comprise 13 percent of the U.S. population, and are consistently documented by the U.S. government to use drugs at similar rates to people of other races. But Black people comprise 30 percent of those arrested for drug law violations – and nearly 40 percent of those incarcerated in state or federal prison for drug law violations.”

“A large scale powder cocaine dealer who trafficks in 500 grams (2,500-5,000 dosage units) of powder cocaine will receive the same sentence as a crack dealer who has sold only 5 grams (10-25 doses) of crack cocaine; that is, a five-year sentence of imprisonment.”

Imprisoned black felons in the United States are stripped of their right to vote.

“The right to vote and to cast a free and secret ballot is supposed to be the cornerstone of democracy. Yet, upwards of 5.3 million Americans are denied the right to vote because of a past felony conviction. In fact, people with felony convictions are banned from voting by law. …According to the Sentencing Project, ‘1.4 million African American men, or 13% of black men, is disenfranchised, a rate seven-times the national average.’”

Estimate of percentage of African-American men disenfranchised in select states

State

Adult black men

Tot AA disenfr

disenf AA men*

% of ABM

Florida

1,028,050

520,521

437,238

42.5%

Kentucky

120,730

56,920

47,813

39.6%

Virginia

546,461

242,958

204,085

37.3%

Tennessee

348,453

145,943

122,592

35.2%

Alabama

410,747

137,478

115,482

28.1%

Mississippi

350,884

107,758

90,517

25.8%

Georgia**

963,232

159,942

134,351

13.9%

* National estimates show women compose 16% of current felons and those in parole/probation. If anything, this figure underestimates the percentage of disenfranchised African-American men because people who are no longer on probation are even more likely to be male.

**While Georgia is home to a large number of current and ex-felons, unlike the other states above, Georgia doesn’t disenfranchise felons for life.

“UNICOR, better known as Federal Prison Industries, or FPI, is a government-owned corporation that employs inmates for as little as 23 cents per hour, to provide a wide range of products and services under the guise of a ‘jobs training program.’”

NORWAY

The US has one of the highest recidivism rates in the world, and Norway has one of the lowest.

“On top of that, when criminals in Norway leave prison, they stay out. It has one of the lowest recidivism rates in the world at 20%. The US has one of the highest: 76.6% of prisoners are re-arrested within five years.”

“An estimated two-thirds (68 percent) of 405,000 prisoners released in 30 states in 2005 were arrested for a new crime within three years of release from prison, and three-quarters (77 percent) were arrested within five years, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced today.”

Prisoners in Norway can vote, and candidates participate in parliamentary debates televised live from inside prisons.

Tom Eberhardt, warden of Bastøy, noted this fact in his interview:

TOM EBERHARDT: Yeah, the election six years ago, they had broadcasted a debate from Oslo Prison. And in that debate you had prisoners, prison officials, and national politicians, who had a huge debate about justice policy. And that was broadcasted nationally.

“It was a stunning political debate that would be hard to imagine in Britain. But it was not so shocking in Norway, where a general election is taking place on Monday. The topic was crime policy and – so far so normal – it featured a panel of politicians discussing the best ways to reduce crime. But the live TV show was set inside a high security prison, the audience consisted exclusively of guards and prisoners, with one inmate, Bjørnar Dahl, taking part in the panel alongside the justice minister and the deputy leader of the main opposition party.” http://www.theguardian.com/society/2009/sep/10/norway-prisons-tv-election-debate

“The second time I went to prison was in September, to a high-security detention facility in central Oslo. I was there to meet Bjoernar Dahl, a 43-year-old inmate who, a few days before, had been debating crime policy with the justice minister and an opposition politician, during a primetime television election debate. The debate was broadcast live from inside the prison walls, in front of an audience of inmates and guards.”

Trond Blattman’s son was one of 55 teenagers murdered on July 22nd, 2011, on a summer camp island in a lake in Norway.

“During the attack, 69 people were killed and of the 517 survivors, 66 were wounded. 55 of those who died were teenagers, the youngest victim was just 14. Breivik fired at least 186 shots during the attack.”

TUNISIA

Iran is a world leader in stem cell research.

“Though the world’s attention has focused on Iran’s advancing nuclear program, Iranian scientists have moved to the forefront in embryonic stem cell research, according to a recent joint study by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.”

“It is often assumed that embryonic stem cell research would be a touchy subject in Iran because of the religious issues it brings up in the United States, however, this isn’t true. Since 2002, the Supreme Leader issued a fatwa in favor of stem cells, putting Iran on the forefront of research.”

“The Brazilian election is interesting for another reason: millions of Brazilian 16 and 17-year-olds, from Sao Paulo to the Amazon, turned out to vote. These young voters make up 2.3% of the Brazilian electorate on average, even though, unlike Brazilians aged between 18 and 69, they are not legally required to vote.”

“[Rwanda] has the distinction of being the only country in the world with more female MPs than male ones. … Rwanda has managed to reach the figure of 64% women in its parliament, which is unheard-of everywhere else.”

“Rwandans once again voted in a female majority parliament in last week’s elections, directly electing 26 women in addition to the 24 seats reserved for females in the constitution. Rwanda has come to be the world’s leader in women lawmakers. Women hold an unprecedented 64 percent of seats in Rwanda’s parliament, more than any another country in the world.”

“The Tunisian Sexual and Reproductive Health Association (ATSR) was established in 1968 and joined IPPF in 1969. It is government-supported and plays a key partnership role with public health services in Tunisia. It has run a number of government and UNFPA- funded initiatives (such as the Family Health Project, designed to raise awareness of family planning amongst deprived communities). ATSR works together with the National Office for the Family and Population (ONFP) to deliver free sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) services, including family planning and education and communication (IEC) programmes to sensitise peri- urban and rural populations about family planning.”

“Access to abortion services, legalized in 1973, is often touted as an example of Tunisia’s progressive approach to women’s rights … Tunisia’s public hospitals and family planning centers provide free, anonymous abortion services.”

The women of Tunisia fought back when the newly formed Islamist party decided they didn’t want women’s rights as part of the new constitution.

“Thousands of Tunisians have protested in the capital, Tunis, against moves by the Islamist-led government which they fear will reduce women’s rights. The government has unveiled a draft constitution which refers to women as ‘complementary to men’. The mostly women protesters held up placards which read: ‘Rise up women for your rights.’”

Women in America tried to pass an Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s, but it fell three states short of ratification.

The ERA was introduced into every session of Congress between 1923 and 1972, when it was passed and sent to the states for ratification. The seven-year time limit in the ERA’s proposing clause was extended by Congress to June 30, 1982, but at the deadline, the ERA had been ratified by 35 states, leaving it three states short of the 38 required for ratification. It has been reintroduced into every Congress since that time. http://www.equalrightsamendment.org/overview.htm

2014 Tunisian Constitution, Article 46, Women’s Rights: The state commits to protect women’s achieved rights, and work to strengthen and develop those rights. The state shall guarantee the equality of opportunity between women and men in the bearing of responsibility in all fields. The state shall strive to achieve equal representation for women and men in elected Assemblies. The state shall take all necessary measures in order to eradicate violence against women.

“The new constitution is considered one of the most progressive in the Arab world, and was passed late on Sunday by 200 votes in the 216-seat assembly in Tunis.… The constitution, which enshrines freedom of religion and women’s rights, took two years to finish… An entire chapter, made up of 28 articles, is dedicated to protecting citizens’ rights, including protection from torture, the right to due process, and freedom of worship. It guarantees equality for men and women before the law and a commitment from the state to protect women’s rights.” http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/27/tunisia-signs-new-constitution-progressive

The Islamist party offered to voluntarily step down even though legally they didn’t have to.

The Islamist party decided to step down, and were not forced to do so by any legal obligation.

ICELAND

On October 24th 1975, the women of Iceland went on strike. 90% of women did no work of any kind.

“Gudrun Jonsdottir still remembers what she was wearing on October 24 1975. She was 21, just married with a young child, and was not going to cook, clean, and was definitely not going to work. Nor was my mother, my friends’ mothers, the shop assistants in the supermarket, the teachers – in short an estimated 90% of women in Iceland. A neighbour, the mother of three boisterous boys, left her family to fend for themselves at 8am and did not return until late in the evening. Remarkably, although Icelandic society was almost brought to a standstill that fine day, its women had never felt so alive, so purposeful and so determined.”

“The 1975 women’s strike—with an estimated 90 percent of women participating, according to the former President Vigdís—brought workplaces and homes to a standstill in what was, at the time, the largest rally in Iceland’s history.”

In 1980, Iceland became the first country to democratically elect a female president. Vigdis Finnbogadóttir was a single mom with a 7-year-old daughter.

“In 1980, despite being a divorced single mother (she adopted a daughter in 1972), Finnbogadóttir was drafted as a candidate for the presidency of Iceland; she was narrowly elected, with 33.6 percent of the national vote, over three male opponents. She was subsequently reelected three times (1984, 1988, and 1992) before retiring in 1996.” http://www.britannica.com/biography/Vigdis-Finnbogadottir

Company boards in Iceland have to be either at least 40% women or 40% men.

“The situation is better in public corporations, where women are 40% of all board members (Rafnsdóttir and Styrkársdóttir, 2009). Public corporations are influenced by the equality law’s provisions on gender parity (Lög um jafna stöðu og jafnan rétt kvenna og karlanr. 10/2008), which requires at least 40% of each sex to be represented on boards and in senior management.”

Research shows that corporate culture starts changing once there are 3 women on boards, because 1 is a token, and 2 is a minority.

The report on the subject – “Critical Mass on Corporate Boards: Why Three or More Women Enhance Governance”: “Based on interviews and discussions with 50 women directors, 12 CEOs, and seven corporate secretaries from Fortune 1000 companies, we show that a critical mass of three or more women can cause a fundamental change in the boardroom and enhance corporate governance.”

“Whether one agrees with quotas as a mechanism for an increase or not (spoiler: men are less likely to), a new look at Norway, which has a mandatory quota system of 40%, is helpful in understanding why having at least three women on a board is important.”

“Fortune 500 companies with the highest representation of women board directors attained significantly higher financial performance, on average, than those with the lowest representation of women board directors, according to Catalyst’s most recent report, The Bottom Line: Corporate Performance and Women’s Representation on Boards. In addition, the report points out, on average, notably stronger-than-average performance at companies with three or more women board directors.”

Jon Gnarr won in a landslide, and his election was a total rebuke of the bankers.

“Gnarr, a standup comic, stood as mayor of Reykjavik. It was a satirical gesture, designed to protest against the political class blamed for miring Iceland in the financial crisis. To his horror, and the horror of the establishment, he won. ‘Why do I always have to get myself into trouble?’ he says, recalling his thoughts on the night of his victory.” http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/15/jon-gnarr-comedian-mayor-iceland

Only one banker, named Kareem, has been tried in a criminal court in the US since the crash of ’08.

Since Iceland prosecuted the bankers instead of bailing out the banks, and put women in charge of much of the financial decision-making, their economy has completely recovered and is doing better than ever.

“Iceland’s three main banks collapsed in October 2008, leaving debts more than 10 times the size of the country’s GDP. The country, until then number one in the United Nations Human Development Index (ie, the best place to be a human being on planet Earth), was way beyond bankrupt. And men were blamed. Even men blamed men. The ruling party was overwhelmingly male, the bankers were practically all male and the rash, absurdly over-ambitious impulses that led a small nation of fishermen to believe they would all be swimming in champagne for the rest of their lives were clearly, categorically, exclusively male. So, as the Financial Times wrote at the time, the women stepped in to clean up the mess.”

“The tiny nation, with a population of just over 300,000 people, has been overwhelmed by an economic disaster that is threatening its very survival. But for a generation of fortysomething women, the havoc is translating into an opportunity to step into the positions vacated by the men blamed for the crisis, and to play a leading role in creating a more balanced economy, which, they argue, should incorporate overtly feminine values.”

“Instead of allowing the criminals responsible for bank fraud to run free as the years passed by, Iceland thought it might be wise to actually indict bankers who committed serious financial crimes that contributed to the collapse. By paying off loans for consumers, forgiving homeowner debt (up to 110% of the property value), and throwing the offenders in prison, Iceland was able to bounce back. Now, its economy is “recovered” and is growing faster than both the US and European economies.”

“Short-term suffering followed [the financial crisis], but today, Iceland is buzzing: Unemployment is 4 percent, the International Monetary Fund is predicting 4.1 percent G.D.P. growth for 2015, and tourism is booming.”